Julie Pippert: Using My Words

1976. The red white and blue year. Year every school kid in America could spell and define Bicentennial . Pop rocks in our mouths and fireworks in the sky year. Sneaking Dr. Pepper at Shelley's house because the rest of us weren't allowed to have it---I was never sure if it rotted teeth or stunted growth or both. The year of the rocket and the satellite---rockets in Ireland and satellites to Mars. Rocket fast airplanes shook the clouds and earthquakes and punk rock shook the world. Election year. Leap year. Equal rights. Women's rights. Vietnam was finally over, and back then over meant over to me. We said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in school, and learned about the Constitution and why we should be proud of the USA. I played Betsy Ross in the school play. Back when schools had plays and social studies. We shook shook shook our booties, which somehow in our minds meant the little socks we wore on our feet, the ones with balls on the back. This misunderstanding ri...

In my first post of the day , I endeavored to recreate a broadcast from This American Life from an old memory. I'd tried to find it through various searches but was unsuccessful. And so i wrote what I recalled, which was the gist, if not exact. However, luckily SciFi Dad is a better searcher than I am and he found the exact piece I meant. Thanks! Please, have a listen...it's an amazing story. A thousand times more powerful than what I tried to recreate. Copyright 2007 Julie Pippert Also blogging at: Using My Words Julie Pippert REVIEWS : Get a real opinion about BOOKS, MUSIC and MORE Julie Pippert RECOMMENDS : A real opinion about HELPFUL and TIME-SAVING products Moms Speak Up : Talking about the environment, dangerous imports, health care, food safety, media and marketing, education, politics and many other hot topics of concern.